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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Difficult to review in many ways, as clearly she was writing her journal to counter the real word of abuse and violence. This was a piece of escapism as she sought refuge from the effects of the gaze, the incest and the humiliation. Although at the time she had convinced herself hse was writing a "truth," and as she later reflected she had found a hidden world to submerge within.
The journal begins just after her father deserted her family, and they in turn left Europe and moved to the USA. This was a huge emotional wrench. It shows a precocious spirit on her part.
The problem with these diaries is that she was traumatised, as she reveals towards the end in her lectures, by her father. The diaries were a retreat into a make believe world of Pollyanaism. This is a common strategy to overwhelming life events as noted by Adler.
Unable to speak fluent English, when she arrived in the USA, Anais committed herself to speaking to her journal as a special friend, a confidante. This was her adolescent chum who pulled her out of emotional collapse. This also became her escape route away from real life and she was more faithful to her diaries than anything else in her life. This was her stability.
This is where its power lies. I am nost sure if this can be read in one straight sitting, as it is a little girl crying out for help, but without the words to express herself, or anyone to listen, or having the words to convey what happened to her. This was a time of conceptual silence. Who would believe a small girl reveaing her father was a violent bully? She eventually propels herself through convention to marriage, another form of sterility.
Later of course she went on to become a famous author and transgressor of rules. This shows the little girl that lay beyond these fronts, the one that was emotionaly vandalised. A cry from the past, she only assimilated later in life, after splitting herself into two, and seeking the journey at the end of the night as a form of liberation. She found one form of meaning through having sex but it was only later she re assembled all of the shattered parts of her psyche and found inner peace.
The journal begins just after her father deserted her family, and they in turn left Europe and moved to the USA. This was a huge emotional wrench. It shows a precocious spirit on her part.
The problem with these diaries is that she was traumatised, as she reveals towards the end in her lectures, by her father. The diaries were a retreat into a make believe world of Pollyanaism. This is a common strategy to overwhelming life events as noted by Adler.
Unable to speak fluent English, when she arrived in the USA, Anais committed herself to speaking to her journal as a special friend, a confidante. This was her adolescent chum who pulled her out of emotional collapse. This also became her escape route away from real life and she was more faithful to her diaries than anything else in her life. This was her stability.
This is where its power lies. I am nost sure if this can be read in one straight sitting, as it is a little girl crying out for help, but without the words to express herself, or anyone to listen, or having the words to convey what happened to her. This was a time of conceptual silence. Who would believe a small girl reveaing her father was a violent bully? She eventually propels herself through convention to marriage, another form of sterility.
Later of course she went on to become a famous author and transgressor of rules. This shows the little girl that lay beyond these fronts, the one that was emotionaly vandalised. A cry from the past, she only assimilated later in life, after splitting herself into two, and seeking the journey at the end of the night as a form of liberation. She found one form of meaning through having sex but it was only later she re assembled all of the shattered parts of her psyche and found inner peace.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The young Anais Nin, before her progression into the HENRY AND JUNE phase. This diary describes the transition from virtuous wife to erotic adventuress. Lucid descriptions of Parisian life in the 1920's. She describes her houses, friends, and hobbies such as Spanish dancing. Her marriage to Hugh Guiler, who fails to satisfy her physically, explains how she progressed to the lascivious Henry Miller.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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8 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Prelude to the Storm
8 Sep 2002
Format:Paperback
For fans of Anais Nin, this unedited early diary is a must. Written in the years immediately preceding the events revealed in her books HENRY AND JUNE and INCEST, this diary is the connecting link that reveals how a virtuous, loving wife became a wild adventurous. The writing is simply gorgeous; you'll be amazed at how polished and vivid her discriptions of life in Paris of the 1920s were (and yes, this book was printed AS IS from the original journals). Ironically, she describes her initial disgust with Parisian "sensuality," as well as her growing acceptance and eventual delight with the city. She describes her homes, friends, and her interest in Spanish dance. But perhaps most importantly, she describes her marriage to Hugh Guiler, a man she loves but who does not satisfy her physically. Read this book so as to understand how Anais was eventually driven into the arms of Henry Miller.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Lionette
2 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
Even if you've read other works of Anais, you must read this journal. Beginning at age 11, young Anais introduces you to a sad, young girl who has matured well beyond her years. However, her passion and desire remain the same. She knew at that young age that she was meant to do nothing else but write.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Modest Beginnings
23 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
This volume of writing offers the careful reader glimpses of Anais Nin before she reinvented herself. Or does it? One can never be sure with Nin.
The girl who became Anais Nin, scandalous diarist, was clearly highly articulate, and determined to live a life of Art and Passion, even when her mother was making her do housework as a teenager in their modest rental house in Queens. It provides a gentle introduction to her life and times, and a fascinating contrast to searing works such as _Incest_, taken from diary material written some twenty or so years later. One also gets some interesting views of early-twentieth century New York City.
The book, taken in the context of Nin's later work, offers evidence that we become what we most want to be. Dreamer, beware!
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